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“Good. I don’t want anyone to know that I’m your bodyguard.” The fewer people who knew, the better. She’d make sure Cam told his mom not to talk about her son’s new bodyguard, either.

“I won’t say a word,” Cam said.

“Thanks.” And she’d keep her eye on Don. It probably wasn’t fair, but he’d pinged her radar just as he had in high school. She was pretty sure it was just the residual distrust from fifteen years ago. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t paying attention to it.

She’d play her ‘ran into Cam and he offered me this desk’ role for Don. She didn’t want him, or anyone else, to know who she really was and why she was spending so much time with Cam.

Because she had no idea who was behind the sabotage to Cam’s houses and his accident. And until she knew, no one would know why she was here.

Chapter 13

The tapping of Jo’s fingers flying over her keyboard snagged Cam’s attention. She’d read something, purse her lips for a moment, then scribble something in a notebook. Keep scrolling, then write down something else. He wanted to ask her what she was doing but didn’t want to interrupt her concentration.

She leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms over her head, and he forced himself to look away. That stretch pushed her breasts against the sweater she wore, and that was something he definitely didn’t want to see.

No. If he was honest with himself, he’d like to watch Jo stretch like that all day. But he wasn’t going to get involved with her. She wasn’t the kind of woman he usually dated -- someone he could have fun with, and no worrying about neediness or clinging. Jo was definitely not a ‘bang her and cross her off a list’ kind of woman. Jo was a friend. Had been for a very long time, even if they’d had no contact for the last fifteen years. And that wasn’t the way you treated a friend.

To add to the ‘no’ factor, she’d met Fiona. Jo had made an impression on his daughter, and the last thing he wanted was Fiona getting attached to a woman who’d leave when the problems at his company were solved.

Did he think Jo was a threat to Fiona? Of course not. He didn’t think Jo would hurt his daughter. But he didn’t want Fiona to get attached to any woman besides his mother. Was he over-protective? No. He simply didn’t want his precious daughter getting hurt. Didn’t want Fiona to get attached to Jo, only to be crushed when she left after this… situation was over.

He'd seen how devastated Fiona had been when Ashley walked away. The memory of his little girl standing at the living room window, watching for her mommy to come home, still made his heart ache.

A part of him snorted with derision.You know damn well Jo’s nothing like Ashley. She’s not going to hurt Fiona. But he and Fiona had been a unit for a long time. He didn’t want anyone elbowing her way into their unit. You don’t even like that Fiona is close to her grandmother.

That wasn’t true.

Was it?

Was he keeping his daughter away from his dates because he wasselfish?

No. Of course not. He just didn’t want Fiona to get hurt. Didn’t want her to get attached to a woman, only to have her walk away. Just like Ashely had done.

But as he glanced at Jo, working at the other desk, he knew he was a liar. He didn’t want to share his daughter. The two of them had been a unit for a long time, and he wasn’t interested in changing that.

Even if it was what Fiona needed?

He shoved the thought away and grabbed some drawings of new floor plans. Studied them as he tried to block out the image of Fiona, staring up at Jo with a huge, delighted smile on her face.

A short knock on the door was a welcome excuse to stop thinking about Fiona and Jo. “Come in,” he called.

Don opened the door and stepped inside, closing it softly behind him. His partner grabbed one of the chairs from in front of Cam’s desk and dragged it to the other side. Slid into it and dropped a plain manila folder onto the desk in front of Cam.

“These are job applications we’ve gotten in the last week.” Don frowned. “Not sure if word’s gotten out that we’ve fired some people, or maybe it’s just that spring is coming and people are looking for construction jobs. Anyway, here they are.”

Cam nodded as he opened the folder. Before looking at the first application, he asked Don, “I assume you’ve read over these applications?”

“I have,” Don said.

“Any thoughts?”

“Yeah. Why don’t you take a look at them and see if you pick up what I’ve picked up.”

“Okay,” Cam said. He grabbed the first application and turned to Don. “You don’t have to sit there and watch me read,” he said. “I know you’ve got plenty of your own work. You were working late a few nights ago. Go ahead and get back to whatever you were doing. I’ll give you a call when I finish looking these over.”

Don frowned. “You sure? If I wait, I can answer any questions you have.”

Cam shook his head. Stopped abruptly. Since he’d had a couple cups of the coffee that Jo had made, his head felt much better. But it wasn’t ready to have him shaking it. “No sense taking up your time since you’ve already read the files. I’ll give you a shout when I’m finished and you can come back.” He grimaced. “I hate to make you go back and forth, but sitting at my desk is working. Not sure how my head would like it if I started wandering the halls.”